Garry Nelson's Left Foot
Well-known member
I think there's some sepia tinted glasses being worn at times.Regarding the 'reducer', you'd get a booking for it or - at best - a ticking off that meant the next foul would be a card. Most players didn't roll around pretending to be injured - their managers would have been furious with them for showing that weakness and encouraging the opposition. Players hanging around the corner flag is pretty much legitimate as the ball is in play - teams can pile in and do something about it. Likewise, sides passing the ball about to give opponents the runaround. There's an element of risk involved. Goalkeepers, I agree, have always pushed their luck but it's not so long (well, a couple of decades) since there was a directive that they couldn't hold the ball for more than 6 seconds and I do think refs used to hurry them up more on goal-kicks.
There seems to be a corrosive view now that feigning injury, extraordinarily slow substitutions (remembering there only used to be one per team per game rather than the current fiasco) and teams being allowed to perform half a slickly choreographed West End musical after every goal are all a totally acceptable norm. Refs certainly don't seem bothered about adding that time on, let alone compensating for all the VAR checks.
I know a lot of that stuff at the top was a bygone era but the point is that matches were 90 minutes back then and they're still meant to be 90 minutes now. As fans, we're all being cheated. Keith Hackett had it right on Twitter yesterday. Get back to players being treated off the field and bring in independent time-keeping. If the referee is only going to add 3 minutes for 8 minutes of stoppages, take that decision out of his hands. Shorten the halves and clock stops when the ball is dead - end of story. Teams will still time waste but ultimately we'll get to see a proper match (and might even be home by midnight).
The first time a ref picks up a physio's bag and lobs it off the field, as used to be a frequent occurrence, I'll give it the biggest cheer of the season!
The point of those tackles were to both intimidate the opposition and to play the game on their terms. Scythe your opponent down and stop their attack building. Give him a sly elbow, a stamp on his ankle. Make him not fancy it.
Stop their rhythm. Stop their fluidity. Stop dangerous situations(counters etc). That's no different in essence to what players do now, it's to disrupt the other team and deny them any possible advantage. They're just not allowed to cut players in half anymore so they engage in a different method.
As for the 90 minutes of football. Are we talking the backpass era where goalkeeper rolled the ball to defender who passed to another defender who passed back to the goalkeeper who picked the ball up wandered around his area for a bit then rolled it out to defender number one again? The six second thing came in in 1997 and I've only ever seen it actually called twice - one of those was on me just as I was about to launch the ball aimlessly downfield in a preseason friendly . It's not been a thing for years and doesn't lead to better football, just keepers getting rid of the ball somewhere/anywhere so they don't give away an in direct free kick in the box.
I reckon the quality of football on offer now is of a higher standard than it's ever been. Yes it's frustrating when a team is ultra cynical in its time wasting but those teams have been around for years in one form or another. I'll take a few minutes less of higher quality football over a few minutes more of passing back to the keeper.
I agree with the on field treatment. This is the real issue. The rules are such that fouls are easy to come by and not only that are easily bookable. That's a triple whammy of benefits to a team. Stop the game, get a free kick, get the opposition booked. Let the game go on around them. All the players grew up playing on the streets/playground where there's all kinds of obstacles in the way.
The rest just needs the refs to book players earlier. Emi Martinez has been booked four times this season. Rather than wait until the last 10 minutes book him in the first 10.